Exhibition - France, Turkey & Czech Republic

May 68 by Bruno Barbey

"I came back to Paris in
spring 1968, after a long trip to South East Asia (the Vietnam war was
at its paroxysm) and Japan, where big riots were taking
place. I
photographed most of the Paris demonstrations : the 'Sorbonne
crisis' as well as the moment it was abandoned, with students shouting
'Too late, civil police, the Sorbonne is no temple'. I also
photographed the occupation of the Odeon theatre, the striking Renault
factories, the burial of Gilles Tautin, the big pro-De Gaulle
demonstration on the Champs-Elysees and the barricades in the Latin
Quarter, on Rue Gay Lussac.

"For weeks my clothes were
saturated by the persistent smell of tear
gas. The ORTF (French public TV and radio network) was on strike, so
with Godard, Chris Marker and others, we shot some short movies called
"cinetracts", a kind of filmed version of our photos. These films were
broadcast throughout France, deprived of TV and radio news due to
strikes in the public service.

"The emergency was to
communicate, to talk to each other, to question
everything. It was the rebellion of a whole generation against what the
society had in principle prepared for it, a rebellion against
everything that came from above.

"Slogans covered the walls :
'It is forbidden to forbid', 'Beneath the
cobble stones, the beach', 'Enjoy with no hindrances'... It was the
rebellion of the youth of one of the richest countries in the world,
just before the 1973 crash.

"May 68 was a 'necessary evil'
as was the 'Prague Spring', or the
crushing of Prague by the tanks of the Warsaw pact." - Bruno Barbey

Exhibition accompanied by the film by Caroline Thienot-Barbey: "MAY 68 seen by BRUNO BARBEY"